After two full days of intensive education and training following their first introductory day to the great outdoors, Pel was tired of acorns. And squats. As a healer, he had only been allowed to gently participate in the Party and combat exercises, mostly being kept on-hand to heal accidental training injuries instead. When he was allowed to participate, his role mostly consisted of staying in the back, pointing out the opposite Party’s movement through the branches, and yelling loudly at his teammates who engaged individual enemies like a pack of children chasing after a soccer ball.

Spells were kept to near-miss only, counting as a hit as long as it was within a certain distance of someone. Injuries only occurred infrequently by mistake, and at their Level were never close to fatal unless something went terribly wrong. Luckily those sorts of accidents hadn’t occurred, and most injuries happened because somebody ran into a branch. Pel found the little puffs of Fairy dust hilarious every time a Fairy ran into something.

By far his most favorite part of the day was alchemy with Ino. It was confusing, and didn’t make any logical sense, but when he followed the recipe, he was left with a potion anyway. Not a good one, but it worked at least a little bit.

=========

“The most basic Mana potion consists of two flowers, water, heat, and the Fairy Family secret ingredient,” Ino had said.

“What’s the secret ingredient?” someone asked from the field of tables. Pel was compelled to listen as soon as the word ‘secret’ had been used. He looked up from his alchemy equipment with rapt attention. Where over 100 tables laden with basic alchemy tools had come from, Pel hadn’t a clue.

“I’ll show you when we get to that step,” Ino said. “First, pluck twelve of the thin, scraggly bits above the petals from your Wizard’s Whiskers and mush them to a paste in your mortar.” The flower had a single layer of large, purple petals below a whole bunch of thin, scraggly, purple strands the diameter of string. “Don’t forget to add one drop of water for every 4 individual whiskers.”

Pel plucked the whiskers from the petal, adding three drops of water into the mortar and ground them into a dark purple paste. When everyone finished the first step, Ino continued.

“Second step! Take three whole White Jas flowers and grind them one at a time into the Wizard’s Whiskers paste. Keep grinding one until the color becomes uniform before adding the next,” Ino said. “When you finish the paste, it should be a bright, purple lavender color. Don’t forget to add one drop of water for every one White Jas. Oh, and only grind the White Jas sunwise,” she added.

Pel thought Ino had misspoken, but sunwise apparently meant ‘clockwise’. The white of the White Jas was surprisingly overtaken by the purple of the Wizard’s Whiskers, not putting much of a dent in the dark purple color until all three had been added. Blending until the mixture had a smooth consistency, Pel was left with an eye-catching purple mush.

“Next, juice twenty-four ripe blueberries, which should give you enough juice to reach the line scribed on the inside of the cauldron,” Ino instructed after everyone caught up. “That line marks 12 milliliters. Once you’ve extracted the juice, you can eat the skins that are left!”

Pel was unable to eat all twenty-four blueberry skins, so he scattered the rest in the dirt and compost that the berries were growing from. After juicing came incorporating the paste into the dark red blueberry juice.

“Stir the paste into the juice using sunwise motions. Stir exactly twenty-four times!”

Pel experienced a visceral satisfaction to counting the number of stirs. It was even better than counting time, or counting the number of Fairies in a group. It was counting, with a purpose. The next step was to carefully activate a Firestone, much like Hugo used in his kitchen. This is where the majority of people had problems. Pel had never before had to regulate his Mana output to a specific quantity.

Ino’s instructions called for exactly 1 Mana per second of heat applied to the cauldron, stirring sunwise with a constant rhythm until the first bubble appeared. Pel had to start over three times before he figured out that it was much easier to monitor his Mana usage with his Self Help interface open as he activated the Firestone. Even still, he was the first to succeed that step.

“Hey, not bad!” Ino said, walking up to Pel’s table. “Ready for the next step?”

“Yes!” Pel exclaimed. This was the most fun aside from parties he’d had since being born.

“Alright, the next step is to add the secret ingredient!” Ino pointed to a small barb broken off a bird’s feather that had some fuzzies on it.

“Do I have to grind it up?” Pel asked, picking up the brown feather piece which was slightly longer than his hand.

“No, we aren’t adding it in,” Ino explained. “Put your face over the cauldron and tickle your nose!”

“Wait, what?”

“Tickle your nose and sneeze!” Ino said happily.

What the fuck? Pel looked into the steaming cauldron and contemplated briefly if all potions had Fairy snot in them. He brought the bit of feather to his nose and tickled it, sneezing hard with a surprisingly high pitched ‘achoo’. He opened his eyes, seeing a handful of golden flecks floating on top of the liquid.

“Fairy dust!” Ino announced. “It doesn’t just come from our wings, ya know? Anyway, start heating the cauldron again the same as before, but this time stir thrice sunwise to once anti-sunwise. Keep this pattern up until the liquid boils. Once it does, immediately stop heating it. Make sure to stir that pattern an even number of times! Oh, and call me over when you finish, I’m excited to find out if Celestial Fairy dust gives the potion any extra effects!”

=========

His dust hadn’t led to any additional effects, but Ino speculated it was likely because his potion quality was ‘Poor’. It had, however, given Pel 40 Mana and increase his regeneration by 3 Mana/min for 15 minutes.

His second favorite training exercise so far had been navigation with Das, mostly because that was when they had finally been allowed down into The Glade. Looking down from above it was difficult to tell how big the roots were that branched off The Mother Tree, piercing the earth and twisting deep into the ground. The closer their group got, the more imposing the roots became. Flying down along the trunk they eventually entered the space between two roots and it was like diving into a valley between two mountain ranges as they reached the ground.

Grass and wildflowers carpeted the land as far as Pel could see. Between the roots, no wind stirred the plants, and large wooden statues five to ten times larger than Pel stood silent watch across the area. Das explained that these statues were Root Dolls, created by the Wood Fairies to act as defenders on the ground. Each valley between the roots held dozens upon dozens of the dolls, ready to be controlled in times of external crisis.

Their number was limited to the Level and number of Wood Fairies that lived in The Mother Tree, and their size was determined by the Level of the Fairy that created it. They didn’t look recently used, as many had grass or flowers growing up their legs. It was explained to Pel and the others that these dolls were better than earth golems, or things made from harder materials because they were self-regenerating as long as they were within range of The Mother Tree. There was no maintenance or upkeep on them, no need to stay connected or tethered through Mana or Skill, so Fairies could just create them up to their limit and let them sit there and they’d never degrade; just silently waiting to be taken control of again.

They did require active control in combat, and could only be controlled by the one who created them. They were capable of obeying simple commands autonomously for as long as they were fed Mana, but could also be used as a remote conduit for other Skills the Wood Fairies possessed. Wood Fairies comprised the majority of the defensive forces amongst the Protectors and Guardians. In addition to their dolls, being able to bind enemies in roots and create barricades that could regenerate were good defensive measures.

Earth Fairies could also use a variety of defensive Skills, but they were a more useful artillery in some circumstances than even Fire Fairies since their Skills didn’t burn the roots or dolls. Not to mention, transporting rocks from the ground in groups and then dropping them from the top of The Mother Tree tended to create heavy impacts. Cho showed them several places where rocks were already resting in the crooks of branches, and down below they could see many medium sized craters, simple grass covered indentations that dotted the landscape throughout the nearby glade.

Backing them up were Snow, Frost, Ice, and some high Leveled Water Fairies capable of freezing water that could bombard attackers with large chunks of ice. Snow Golems in the winter provided additional support to the Root Dolls for several months each year as well. Fire Fairies were more useful against aerial attackers; fireballs and other explosive Skills were more forgiving with aim and caused wide area bursts among flocks of birds. Pel thought it was a shame that Fairies didn't seem to have any desire to learn non-Racial magic. He'd definitely be visiting the library once their week of outside training was completed, maybe they had something there he could learn?

Once finished with the impromptu lecture between the roots, the group had continued flying outward, passing through the center of the valley before breaking out into the wide-open glade. There were more cultivated plants and fields on the ground, a plethora of fruit bearing trees growing in neat lines looking absolutely diminutive beneath the canopy of The Mother Tree kilometers above.

Using The Mother Tree as their ‘Fairy North’, Das had given directions to various places around The Glade. Directly opposite The Mother Tree was the lake that nobody was allowed to fly over. Its size made it appear closer than it was, 15 kilometers away. Water Lilies and Lotus flowers floated on top of the water like a ring growing inward from the shore. Calling it “just a lake” was a lot like calling The Great Lakes back on Earth “just lakes”. From the ground, Pel couldn’t see the opposite shore, just the tops of the trees on the very edge of the horizon of water.

Das had led them along the northern shore, headed toward that he called ‘the pond’. The pond turned out to be the size of what Pel considered a regular lake to look like. Das explained that this is where they cultivated several species of fish, for both consumption and various alchemy uses. Several underwater plants also grew within the pond, and Ty was a frequent visitor testing out his various experiments on larger scales. They weren’t taken to the southern edge of The Glade, since that was the closest direction Humans lived, and nobody in charge wanted to take any chances with that.

The first time Das had led them to the edge of the forest, Pel was struck by how large the trees were. Clearly nowhere near as big as The Mother Tree, but they still towered into the sky like redwoods on steroids. Das explained to them that every plant in the vicinity of The Mother Tree was larger, and healthier than everywhere else in the forest. There wasn’t much underbrush beneath the trees, and the ground between the trunks was either plain dirt, or covered in short, fern-like plants interspersed with the occasional broken limbs hosting colonies of mushrooms. It was rather peaceful, but also kind of spooky, like walking into a silent old church.

The forest was deeply shadowed by the dense overhead leaves and branches, leaving only sparse openings to allow shafts of sunlight and a green tinged glow to pierce down from above. Das pointed out that the browns and reds of the bark on the North-facing side of the trunks surrounding them grew a type of moss that was filled with water and tasted a bit like mint. Knowing which direction was North, and which section of the forest you were in would make it simple to navigate back to The Glade and the safety of The Mother Tree.

Reaching the forest had taken nearly three hours of flying, including breaks to regenerate Stamina for the young Fairies. The northern section of forest was 50 kilometers away from The Mother Tree which was not quite as far away as the eastern forest on the other side of the lake roughly 70 kilometers from ‘home’.

The past three days had been filled with alchemy, navigation, tag, harvesting, and light combat practice. From sunrise to sunset Pel’s every waking moment had been filled with training. Totally worth it, though, thought Pel. Two Levels in three days almost feels like being Level 1 again! Too bad Mat, and Liki had to go off to the Level 10 and up group. In addition to the two Levels, he had gained three natural Dexterity, two Vitality, and one each of Clarity and Willpower. Still not a single damn Strength gain! He had, however, elected to put both his Level 7 and 8 Attribute points into Dexterity.

Self Help Interface Name: Errapel Class/Race: Lesser Celestial Fairy Level: 8 Free AP: 0 Health: 50 (0.52/hr) [0.62/hr S.T.] AP Used: 16 Stamina: 59/70 (0.82/min) [0.98/min S.T.] Secrets Discovered: 6 Mana: 272/272 (6/min) [7.2/min S.T.] Things Stolen: 0 Attributes Points Added Score Description Charisma 0 6 Influences persuasiveness, likeability, and chance to succeed with certain types of magic. Clarity 6 29 Influences perception, rational thought, Mana, Mana Regeneration, Magic Damage, and ability to resist certain magical mind-altering effects. Dexterity 4 17 Influences physical dexterity and overall agility. Increases flexibility, movement and attack speed, and also increases your physical efficiency and precision. Strength 0 1 Influences physical strength, lifting/carrying capacity, and Physical Damage. Vitality 6 12 Influences overall constitution and endurance, increases Health and Stamina and their respective Regeneration rates. Also increases Poison Resistance. Willpower 0 10 Influences ability to focus, and ignore distractions. Has other effects at high level. Passive Skills Fairy Racial Traits:

Pure Magic - You are a being born of pure Mana given physical form. The only sustenance you require is Mana. You may alter your physical appearance incrementally over time at will. You have an Unlimited Lifespan, but be careful, you can still die.

Ferrous Fear-ous - Ferrous materials burn you, and interfere with your ability to use magic, and magic-like abilities.

Magical Metabolism - Any food or drink consumed is quickly broken down completely, and a portion is directly converted into Mana.

Kleptocurious - You have a strong urge to know things, and to take things. Especially secret things!

Star Touched (Celestial) - While exposed to star light, increase all Regeneration rates by 20%, and all other Racial Skills are 10% stronger.

Fairy Intrusive [Racial]

By focusing on the Presence of a target, you may see their Level. Warning - The target might sense your snooping, reactions will vary!

Active Skills Name Cost Description & Effect Fairy Wings [Racial] 1.4 Stam/min

Summons a pair of Fairy Wings, granting Perfect Flight (omnidirectional control of flight path). Cost increases based on Level, speed of flight is dependent upon your Level, and Dexterity Score.

Flight Speed: 8.8 Meters/sec (9.7 in star light)

Mote [Racial] - - Transforms you into a mote of light, granting Perfect Flight. You can fit through most openings, even really tiny ones! Flight speed is limited to 1/3 that of Fairy Wings. While in mote form, you cannot use or benefit from other Skills. The brightness of your mote form is variable from "tiny ember" to "lantern". Maximum brightness increases with Level. Gentle Touch [Racial]

21.2 Mana

3.6 Mana/sec

A weak, low-cost healing skill. After a small initial burst of healing, you may continue channeling Mana into the Skill for additional healing over time. You must be in physical contact with the target for this Skill to work. Cost increases based on Level, Healing increases based on Clarity score.

Initial Healing: 6.5 Health (7.2 in star light)

Channeled Healing: 1.3 Health/sec (1.4 in star light)

Aside from alchemy, Rini’s midday lunch-and-story-time had been the highlight of Pel’s days. There was lots of interesting stuff to learn by listening to others talk about their experiences. It turned out that being Pure Magic literally meant Fairies needed some level of Ambient Mana to exist. There was supposedly an enormous desert to the west, taking up almost one fifth of all the Human lands, with areas completely devoid of Mana. No Mana, no Mana regeneration, no life. Unless you had water, or something organic to eat to convert into your own Mana. Definitely a place to avoid in Pel’s book.

Rini informed them that their [Magical Metabolism] had limits not included in the trait description. ‘Food and Drink’ had to be water, or in some way organic; they couldn’t just eat sand to stay alive. Anything they digested into Mana would be split between their Mana Pool, and their body’s Essence. Surviving in a Mana-Void would require quite a bit of sustenance since neither type of Mana would regenerate naturally. She told them that eventually they’d shrivel up like Fairy raisins if they ran out of food.

They also learned that the entire world was apparently one huge super-continent, according to the Merfolk who lived off the eastern shores, anyway. One of the Protectors claimed to have spoken with a Sprite, the aquatic cousin to the Fairies, who claimed to have spoken with one of the Merfolk who had a cousin whose brother’s father-in-law claimed to have been part of a deep-sea expedition to discover new shores. After avoiding sea monsters and deadly whirlpools, they had instead wound up on the western side of Enna, looking at the back of the Black Mountains which ran down half the length of Enna from the North.

Pel remembered seeing some black smudges at the edge of the visible horizon from the top of The Mother Tree, figuring that perhaps those had been the peaks of the Black Mountains. Guess it depends on how far away the mountains are…and how tall. Several Fairies had questioned the name of the mountains, and Cho had informed them that they were the final resting place of the defeated Demons. The land the mountains poked up from was cursed, and the whole area was filled with Voidstone; another good place to never visit.

Cho and his damned acorns never stopped. Through every activity, every moment, they lived under constant threat. Even when they were taking turns sleeping! Pel began cheating after the first night was interrupted by two rounds of physical exercise. It turned out, you could totally sleep in mote form. As long as he dimmed himself to almost nothing, being startled awake caused him to naturally explode with fright, and light, darting away in the air in a natural looking reaction that ensured he never failed an evening surprise test.

Tonight would be special, however. Das and Regi were taking half the remaining group to spend the night patrolling the forest with the Protectors. This was to be practice for when they actually had guard duty, and was a test of their Willpower to remain focused on the activity. Pel didn’t think he’d have a problem with that, but he wasn’t so sure about the others. Finally getting to spend a significant amount of time with Fairies around his own Level made their lack of Willpower, and his abnormal amount, abundantly clear.

Pel half expected the Protectors would have to spend more time wrangling Fairies back into the safe zone than teaching them anything about patrol. Supposedly the Protectors would be testing their reflexes too, jumping out to scare them in the forest. The area was still supposedly clear of threats, being inspected every morning by teams of Protectors, but being in the forest at night had Pel anxious. Anything could slip into the boundary under the cover of darkness. There were only so many Protectors to go around.

Das and Regi landed in the lower branches of the first tree at the edge of The Glade. All the trainees followed suit, sitting down to rest and regenerate their Stamina from the long flight.

“Alright everyone, listen up!” Das called out. “This is the southwest side of the forest, and from here we’ll begin the evening patrol. Do not fly further south from here. Your patrols are scheduled to head north past the lake and then curve toward the northeast until you reach the northern most part of the Glade. From there head east, and then southeast until you reach the far side of The Mother Tree. We’ll be breaking you out into individual Parties before we begin, stay close to each other. There’ll be Protectors following you around from a distance, but they may not always be visible to you, so keep yourselves as safe as if you were alone.

“Each Party will leave here ten minutes apart traveling north. Each party is in charge of their own navigation, and the Protectors following you will only turn you back if you exit the boundary of The Mother Tree.” Das looked up to the sky. “The sun will set in a couple hours, so keep track of the moon to keep track of your progress during the night. This is a 250-kilometer patrol, so you’ll need to take breaks. This will include one long break at midnight, so watch for when the moon is directly overhead.

“We expect this to take just over 14 hours with breaks. Regi and I will meet you at the endpoint of the patrol where we will be receiving reports from your assigned Protectors regarding your performance. Parties that allow themselves to be distracted, or fail to respond properly to surprises will be sent to Cho for special training.”

Everyone grumbled at that. Special training meant physical exercise until you ran out of Stamina, and then heating water for tea using a Firestone until your Mana bottomed out. For hours.

“However, if ya can manage to surprise yer Protector, you’ll get cake!” Regi added encouragingly. Cheers and mischievous eye-gleams spread through the crowd like a swift breeze. This time the Protectors groaned. Pel sympathized with the Protectors. Not only would they have to watch out for the safety of their assigned Party, but now they’d have to be on the lookout for pranks and jump scares. “When we call yer name, come up front and form yer Party, then head out.”

Every ten minutes Das and Regi would call out names from the wooden tablets showing the group roster. Pel was called up for the fourth Party, being joined by two Wind Fairies, an Earth Fairy, and a Water Fairy. A quick series of introductions matched names to hair colors. Pel was surprised to be matched up with Ane, the Wind Fairy he had startled the first day during the gathering in the amphitheater. Checking her Presence, he could see that she was Level 9 now. In fact, nearly everyone left in their group was either Level 8 or 9, a large number having already left for the 10 and up group.

Vee was a Water Fairy with the darkest blue hair Pel had seen yet, nearly reaching black. Taka was brown-haired Earth Fairy wearing slate gray pants and no shirt, showing off his fake abs which were slightly off putting to see on someone with such a cute face. Must have been influenced by Gabby. No wonder so many Fairies think the muscle heads are funny. The last member to reach the gathering point was the second Wind Fairy, Fy.

They were assigned a nameless Protector, and set out deeper into the forest. Pel looked back after passing beyond sight of The Glade, and their Protector was already hidden.

“Hey!” Pel whispered to the Party around him, slowing down and waving them closer. “We should try surprising the Protector as early as possible.”

“Why? Wouldn’t it be better to wait for nighttime?” Taka whispered back.

“We glow in the dark,” Pel explained. “It’ll be harder to sneak up on her at night. Not to mention, the longer we wait to try, the smaller our window of opportunity. Eventually she’ll be too on guard and expecting it.”

“Those are good points,” Ane agreed. “What should we do?”

“I don’t know, any thoughts?” Pel asked the Party.

“Wait for her to surprise us, but then surprise her back?” Taka asked.

“There’s no guarantee she’ll try before dark,” Ane shook her head.

“How about we try doubling back, go around and catch her from behind?” Pel ventured.

“How will we be able to lose her, though?” Ane asked.

“I don’t know, maybe we scatter, fly in every direction to break line of sight and then meet back up together someplace?” Pel replied.

“Oh, I have an idea!” Vee chimed in. “The Lantern Lilies! They grow along the banks of the river flowing west from the lake. It should be about two hours away from here, we’ll make it before dark. We can fly over the river, and then scatter. After that, we meet back at the Lantern Lilies and hide on the spiky, glowy bit that grows in the middle. If we’re in mote form it should hide our light! We just have to wait for the Protector to fly over and we can jump out and surprise her!”

It sounded like a solid plan, and everyone agreed. They increased speed, continued patrolling, and tried to act like they weren’t about to try pulling anything. Once or twice they caught sight of the Protector trailing them, so they changed up their direction several times to weave through the trees. Pel occasionally had to nudge his Party members along their route, keeping them focused on objective by reminding them of how much fun it would be to surprise their Protector. Over two hours into their route, Pel heard the sound of roaring water. They had expected to be there sooner, but weaving through the trees increased the time it took to get there. It was almost night; the sun was hardly providing any light and at this point the glow from the Lantern Lilies would be their only hope. The trees thinned out slightly in front of them, and the river came into view. Oh shit, that’s a big fucking river.

The river was moving quickly, crashing loudly against the few large rocks that stuck out of the water, and it had to be at least eighty to one hundred meters across. Rivers this wide shouldn't be allowed to flow so quickly. Pel couldn’t see any of the lilies on this section of the river, but he remembered learning from Das and Ino that they normally grew where the water slowed down after a bend. To the right was The Glade, and flying over the water he could just make out some extra light at the end of the tunnel that the trees made over the river perhaps five or six kilometers upstream. To the left, the river disappeared behind a bend a few hundred meters away. Wow, we're pretty deep into the forest. We must be nearly to the edge of The Mother Tree's boundary. Left to the bend, find some Lantern Flowers, let's do this.

“Everyone ready?” Ane asked. Everyone nodded their heads, reaching the other side of the river. They slipped back into the tree line and took a sharp left around one of the massive trunks.

“ACORNS!” Pel shouted, and everyone exploded in different directions. Pel flew straight up toward the branches above, changing directions to fly directly alongside the river once he reached cover. His eyes fervently watched his surroundings, looking for any sight of his Party members or the Protector, but nobody was visible. Half a minute later he reached the bend, following it as it curved left, and finally spotted a handful of Lantern Lilies growing from the edge of the water. I hope everyone else is around.

Pel stayed in the branches until he reached a position that was nearly directly overhead before flying downward. Halfway between the canopy and the flowers his wings suddenly shuddered and disappeared. Eyes wide, and limbs flailing, he glanced sideways at his Stamina on the Party interface and practically cried as he saw it was empty. He idly noticed everyone else was similarly low before he plunged into the cold water below.